I play Texas Holdem in a different way to most people as far as I know. I think of poker as entertainment and have a set budget each month that I can afford to lose by indulging this passion. Poker causes a fear of losing money which is not unhealthy, but by being happy to lose the money I set aside for the game, which is not a massive amount compared to the rest of my money, anything I manage to retain is a bonus and builds my roll for next month. Obviously I play hard and do not aim to lose but knowing I am doing things right from a risk perspective helps me stay comfortable. I would recommend anyone to follow this way of playing; the losing (which we all suffer sometimes) feels far less painful. Wins are more fun too.

If you want fame and fortune from playing poker then you should set your playing strategy to put yourself in the best position to achieve this. In order to get famous you need to be playing in large live events. Then you need to win! To get there in the first place that may mean getting staked or better still participating in satellite events where you can win sponsorship packages and seats to larger poker events. Grind your cash game profits then invest some of that into satellites. Make any seat count and you never know some of that fame and fortune may come your way.

For the recreational player I would still recommend that you play poker using bankroll management and read plenty of strategy articles to help improve your play. If you only play poker tournaments online then do all you can to make this time worthwhile. Poker tournaments offer great potential for big scores in relation to your buy-in and in a $20 tournament first prize can often by $5,000 or more and tournaments like that are played everyday online. By playing recreationally the money is a massive bonus for you doing something you would do anyway; playing online poker. Providing you are careful not to get hooked on playing and being irresponsible with your money then poker will only ever be a positive thing in your life. Either you win or you are entertained.

Looking forward, I would like to go more seriously into playing poker online regularly and see how I progress. I am comfortable in myself knowing that if it does not work out I will simply enjoy playing and strive to get better. It may never become my profession and I would not necessarily feel bad about that. Poker rooms would prefer you to play over time rather than shoot off a load of money and disappear so they agree with careful poker playing and bankroll management.

By Malcolm Clarke

Let us assume that you are starting with a bankroll of $220 as an amateur player. This is not a massive amount of money and on my blog I recommended that even if you cannot afford this amount you save $55 for four months or $110 for two months and use that time to swot up on poker strategy before you begin to play.

$220 is my minimum poker bankroll for decent stakes. There is always the danger of being trapped at a low limit forever if you get too comfortable or do not put in the required volume to move up. $200 allows you to play $2 SNG’s and to take into account the rake you pay for each tournament. This is very important and explains why my bankroll requirement is not $200 as I like a full one hundred buy-ins.

You should play $2.20 SNG’s four tables at a time using solid SNG poker strategy. Read books and learn about ICM, push fold ranges and all the other SNG specific things you need to be aware of. You should be able to beat these types of SNG over time and when your bankroll increases to $440 you can play two tables at the higher level of $5.50 and two tables at $2.20. If you get to $550 you should move up fully to the four tables of $5.50 SNG’s and hopefully move up permanently with good results. If you fall below $350 in your bankroll go back to $2.20 tournaments only. Slowly moving up in levels until eventually you are playing four $10 SNG’s and have a bankroll of $1100 keeps you firmly within the rules and keeps you in the game. You can play up to eight tables at once if you wish but this depends on your own tolerance.

Continue to move up to the $20 SNG’s if you wish and by this time your bankroll should be above the $2200 point. In fact you should only play $20 SNG’s if you reach this point. If you choose to go professional you can use the SNG at high volume if you are successful to grind out good poker profits. At a 10% ROI your earnings playing 1000 sit and go poker tournaments per month would be $2000 per month profit. A 15% ROI (attainable for a good player) would be worth $3000 per month. Many players grind out up to 3000 SNGs in one month which is a hard grind but they earn $9000 or more each month. To reach this level you would need to be 12 – 15 tabling the SNG’s for many hours which personally for me is something I could not mentally handle for that long everyday. The swings can also be pretty fierce.

If you have a good job there is no reason that with two hours per night at $10 SNG’s you could not make an extra $250 – $500 per month for yourself this way. It is important you have a good bankroll strategy so you can always stay in the game and not risking going bust.

By Malcolm Clarke